Adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of dye contaminants in wastewater over W-doped titania nanotubes

In recent years, the degradation of dye contaminants discharged from industrial operations is considered a top priority in the environmental science and engineering field. In this study, tungsten (W) doped titania nanotubes (TNs) were synthesized to advance their reactivity towards the degradation of basic violet 10 (BV10), acid blue 9 (AB9), acid orange 7 (AO7), and acid red 1 (AR1) under UV radiation. The specific surface area of the W-TNs was 242.6 m2 /g. The XPS spectra presented peaks positioned at 35.5 and 37.6 eV endorsing the W6+ species, conforming to W 4f7/2 and 4f5/2, respectively. The reaction kinetics indicated that BV10, AB9, AO7, and AR1 photodegradation were all two-step reactions with rate constants being BV10: k1 / k2 = 31 min−1, AB9: k1 / k2 = 2 min−1, AO7: k1 / k2 = 1 min−1, and AR1: k1 / k2 = 3 min−1. The optimum photocatalytic efficacies for BV10 (49.77%, AB9 (14.95%), AO7 (2.12% and AR1 (0.54%) were acquired using W-doped TNs.